Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method.
Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus is present which is provided with a fixing apparatus including an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus, in which an ultraviolet curing agent contained in a liquid developer is cured to thereby fix the liquid developer onto a recording medium such as paper. The fixing apparatus including an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus can allow the liquid developer to be almost instantly cured, and therefore is used for drying or the like in a high speed UV offset printing apparatus or an UV inkjet recording apparatus. The fixing apparatus, however, must fix the liquid developer in a shorter time along with an increase in the image output speed of the apparatus, and therefore the illuminance of ultraviolet light from the ultraviolet irradiation apparatus is required to be increased. If the illuminance of ultraviolet light is increased, however, the power consumption of the image forming apparatus tends to be increased.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-083574 describes a technique for solving the above problem of an increase in the power consumption in a high-speed machine (image forming apparatus in which the image output speed is high). Specifically, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-083574 describes the following technique: before irradiation of a liquid developer on a recording medium with ultraviolet light, the recording medium is warmed by a heat plate to heat an ultraviolet curing agent, thereby curing the ultraviolet curing agent at a low illuminance of ultraviolet light.
In the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-083574, however, the recording medium is warmed by a heat plate and thus the ultraviolet curing agent is difficult to efficiently heat. The technique then has the following problem: the total of the power consumption of the heat plate and the power consumption of the ultraviolet irradiation apparatus is greater than the power consumption in curing of the ultraviolet curing agent by only the ultraviolet irradiation apparatus.